Toyota
Prado 120 Turbo Diesel, Modified.

Finally
a turbo diesel Toyota Prado 120 on Modified!

This
Toyota Prado gets well used for touring and the fun tracks. Todd the owner has
done a lot of research on the forums and web to build this up for his bush
outings and has done a lot of the stuff himself. DIY is nothing new to Todd
with some pretty epic ideas resulting in some cool stuff in the rear of his 120
Prado.

Click Any Photo To Enlarge Or Open Photo Album.

You
can tell a lot of time and thought has gone into this build and I don’t see
Todd parting ways with this Toyota Prado 120 for quite sometime.

12V
Water pump plumbed up to 25L water tank mounted on drawers. Water outlet on rear
door operated via switch

12V
cigarette outlets in middle seats and cargo area

12V
power in Roof Top Tent

12V
LED power in Foxwing awning

12V
LED auxiliary courtesy downlights in all doors

Lights:

Lightforce
XGT spotlights with 55w HID upgrade on bullbar

52”
Curved Lightbar mounted on Roof Rack

Comms
& GPS:

GME
TX3520s UHF mounted in roof console

GME
AE4705 HD aerial mounted on bulbar

GME
5w handheld UHF radio

Suspension and tyres:

2”
Old Man Emu front struts with 6mm titanium spacers

3”
Old Man Emu Sport Shock absorbers with 3” Ironman HD springs

Mickey
Thompson MTZ p3 tyres in 265/70/R17

Bar
work and exterior mods:

ARB
Deluxe Steel Bullbar with custom LED foglight/DRL combo and LED indicators

ARB
splashguards

ARB
HD Bash plates from bulbar to transfer case

ARB
Steel Deluxe roof rack w/backbone mounting system

Kings
Tourer Roof Top Tent

Oztent
Foxwing 270o awning

Rear
bumper chop

Back of the wagon:

Full
custom drawer fitout with slide out pantry, water system and LED lighting

ARB
60L fridge

Drop
down table and shelf on rear door

Recovery gear:

DominatorX
12,000lb recovery Winch

ARB
recovery kit

Kings
Recovery kt

Full
comprehensive First Aid kit

4x
Maxtrax

Shovel

Short
Axe

Todd's top 3 trips in the Toyota Prado 120

Summertime
Track to Calcup Hill, Windy Harbour

Twilight
Cove and Telegraph track, Cocklebiddy

Harvey
Powerlines/Staples Line, Harvey

Unstoppable
moment in the Prado 120:

Crossing the Meerup River in full flow in Winter due to
necessity (last afternoon of a 3 day trip, had to follow severely overgrown and
sporadic track for 2 hours after Summertime track ended, turning around would
mean a 6 hour detour in horrible weather. Crossing was made with some
difficulty due to tides. Many celebratory bevvies followed).

Most
scary situation in the Toyota Prado 120:

Nearly rolling the car on a very wet muddy hill climb behind Brunswick.
Car was leaning against the bank on drivers side only supported by the side of
the bullbar. Aerial was over 45 degrees to the side. Couldn’t get out of the
car due to the bank and how unstable the vehicle was. No winch was in our
group, so I needed to drive out of it while 3 guys hung off of the high side to
help stabilise the car.

Todd’s modification tips:

Start with modifications that allow you to actually get out
and explore the tracks (2” lift, AT tyres, bullbar, snorkel). From there you
can decide if you want a 4WD to do more touring or to tackle the harder tracks.
This will help you to keep the mod list focused and you won’t end up with any
unnecessary weight or costs on your 4WD.

Things to lookout
for with the Toyota Prado 120:

Rear door – Due
to the weight of the spare wheel on the door, over time the door will sag,
meaning the latching mechanism will not line up. Fixes are: Move spare tyre to
a rear bar with carrier, or use washers to help even up the angle of the rear
door to combat the sagging.

Rear bumper – The
first thing to suffer damage offroad due to its low clearance and scooped
shape. Water crossings and mud will pull the bumper rearwards, which in turn
disconnects the rear flares from the car, breaking the clips or flare. Fix is
to either replace with a steel rear bar, or cut down the factory bumper so that
the tow bar is the lowest rearwards point of the car.

Cracked dashboard
– The age of the 120 series and the materials used in the dash construction has
meant that a huge majority have got cracks running through them. Toyota does
not cover this damage, and a replacement will cost close to $1000, so don’t be
surprised to see the cracks. Nothing can be done about it, except for a dash
mat to cover them up.

1KZ-TE common
failure – Head gasket. Overheating can lead to the cylinder heads warping or
cracking. This is due to the cylinder heads not being made of as strong a
material as the block. Engine temp gauge and EGT gauge will help prevent this.

Top 3
tips with the Toyota Prado 120:

1. Lift
and tyres for offroad. From factory the Prado sits quite low, so the extra
ground clearance is needed to tackle harder tracks.

2. Engine choice –
1KZ-TE for reliable turbo diesel that will outlast us all. V6 petrol for the
power and if you own shares in BP or Caltex. D4D if you can afford new
injectors every 50,000kms and like staring at techstream diagnostics to check
injector feedback values.

3. Camping – Cannot praise the
Roof Top Tent highly enough. Coming from a swag, it’s on a whole other level
above (literally). The supposed drawbacks are a lot less than most would want
you to believe, and if you have a missus, she will want to come camping much
more often (well mine did).

The Modified Video.

Thanks to the following people for helping with
my build:

My Dad for being my guide for
all things Mechanical

My Brother for giving me the
4WD bug and teaching me the ways of offroading.

My Fiancé’ for putting up
with the Prado always third-wheeling in our relationship.